MONKEY MOTHERING A 24-HOUR CHORE FOR COLOMBIAN WOMAN

Having substitute mothers for orphaned baby monkeys has been used in other parts of the world and in Colombia in recent years.

The idea, Cardenas said, is to let a baby monkey grow and then place it in a large cage in the center, next to another monkey of the same species. If they accept being in the same cage together, the center and environmentalists will begin a process of trying to introduce them into the Amazon jungle with a monkey group.

“This kind of primate lives in family groups, with a father, mother and children ... They are a bit like us,” said veterinarian Claudia Brieva, who coordinates the center’s rescue and rehabilitation unit.

She said an older orphaned monkey can’t be released alone into the jungle. A baby can be accepted by another family, however, or create its own, she said.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists a dozen types of night monkeys on its Red List of threatened species. Though none is listed as endangered, several are suffering declining populations.

In Colombia, Brieva said, “Their natural habitats are being destroyed by the expansion of the agricultural frontier, by the indiscriminate cutting o the forests and jungle.”

Silva says she has raised two other baby monkeys and both of those were freed in different parts of the country. She hasn’t heard anything about them since.

“It is like with a child. You are at peace because they are going to be in their natural habitat,” she said.